Cal Football News and Updates

Which Golden Bear is more Important for the Eagles to Soar?

ESPN conducted a poll on the evening of 8/9 on which former Cal Golden Bear is more valuable to the Eagles

Case for Nnamdi: The Eagles gave up 31 touchdowns last year include 3 to Aaron Rodgers in a game which he compiled a 122 QB rating in their 21-16 loss to the Packers. Obviously a lot could be said about the two David Akers missed field goals, but the Eagles gave up 31 and 27 points respectively to the Giants and Cowboys in the final weeks of the season. Asomugha will go a long ways to taking Steve Smith or Hakeem Nicks and Miles Austin out of the games and allow the Eagles to put on blitz packages to get to the immobile Eli Manning and Tony Romo. Additonally, Nnamdi’s involvement with the community (Home Depot Neighborhood MVP award winner 2007, White NFL Man of the Year 2009, plus his involvement with former president Bill Clinton’s “Clinton Global Initiative” can only help the Eagle’s image hits taken here, here, here and lastly here.

Case for DeSean: Bill Walsh once wrote a book “Finding the Winning Edge” where he cites the importance of big plays of 20+ yards to winning football games. The chart on this website shows that for the 2010 playoff teams, when they had 2 or more 20+ yard plays via completion, the ground game, defense, or special teams, you had a 37/42 or ~88% chance of winning the game. DeSean averages 22.5 yards per reception and averages over 44 yards on touchdown passes. This does not include the momentum shifts and morale boosts these big plays provide. Lastly, he’s also pretty good in the return game too.